Virtual Reality (VR) is proving to be one of the biggest aids for organizations in their corporate training programmes. One leading company to recently make substantial use of the same is Walmart where VR was used for simulating real-world problem scenarios such as the Black Friday shopping rush. PC-tethered Oculus Rifts are being used for the same. Walmart in 2017 used seventeen-thousand Oculus Go headsets to most of its five-thousand plus stores. All kinds of employees got such training, with soft skills forming a key part. Before implementing on such a large scale, the Walmart Academy conducted a pilot test on some of the company stores. Newer content keeps getting pushed down to the local stores. The company measures its ROI for this scheme through the knowledge transfer that takes place at the stores.

Source:https://www.enterprisemobilityexchange.com/virtual-reality/news/virtual-reality-training-walmart

Uploaded Date:31st October 2018

The next decade will see tens of thousands of Baby Boomers retire every day. This provides a golden opportunity for the millennial generation to stake a claim for corporate leadership. Companies will soon, if not already have plans to bring up the millennials to these top positions. Two companies in particular have already set up their plans to do so likewise. These companies are American Express and Johnson & Johnson. They have specific management training accelerated modules in place for aspiring leaders. American Express has an Accelerated Learning Development (ALD) programme aimed at leaders, though it was initially conceived to train fresh MBA graduates. The one at Johnson & Johnson is called the Talent Acceleration Process (TAP). One of its purposes is to track employees with highest potential from the early and middle levels. One of the reasons for the roaring success of these two programmes is the fact that the method of analogous learning is being used in them. They are also highly immersive so the trainees get deeply engaged in the acts.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/06/how-johnson-johnson-and-american-express-are-developing-young-leaders?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter

Uploaded Date:13 September 2018

Most managers claim and think of themselves as good at coaching. Yet, in most circumstances what they see as coaching, is actually preaching or consulting in disguise. It is a process where the other’s potential is unlocked so performance may be maximized. This can be achieved through effective management training sessions, but does not happen due to inherent biases many managers tend to possess. This is because their ideas on their own skills tend to get approved not by the real coaching experts but by fellow members of the managerial cadre. To understand it all, an experiment was conducted on MBA students who had specifically enrolled at a course for leadership training. It emerged from this simulated study that right from student life itself, micromanaging is wrongly seen as coaching. Instead, coaching includes a gamut of skills such as listening, questioning, providing feedback, showing empathy, pointing out strengths, providing structure and encouraging one to find solutions.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/08/managers-think-theyre-good-at-coaching-theyre-not

Uploaded Date:16 August 2018

Management training to weed out unconscious bias is one of the major areas of concern now. Cab aggregator Lyft recently took this up in a highly innovative manner using Virtual Reality (VR) for the same. Taking a cue, Udemy too has started something like it based around the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. It has instructional design specifically to alter behaviour change among employees. Those who underwent such an exercise are able to apply newly learnt information better. The different levels used in it are- remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The use of VR was made because that is a tool which allows the trainee or a student to take stock of another’s situation. Once someone undergoes he/she may discuss experience with others who’ve been through the same. This action-based learning allows internalizing of the issues.

Source:https://www.hrdive.com/news/using-virtual-reality-in-unconscious-bias-training-to-change-behavior/527162/

Uploaded Date:10 August 2018

Mindfulness meditation has become one of the hottest areas of pursuit in North America. Not only for personal requirements, indeed specific corporate training sessions are being arranged on this. Mindfulness trains the mind to focus on the present and not wander off to other thoughts such as future planning or reviewing the past. The origins of this movement may be traced back to the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction programme designed by management thinker Jon Kabat-Zinn back in 1979. The Harvard Business School conducts workshops specifically to this end in collaboration with the Center for Wellness and Health Promotion. Mindfulness has been practiced by Buddhist monks for over two-thousand and five-hundred years. The spurt in popularity can be attributed to the 1980s when it got linked to Zen. Researchers on meditation have even attributed depression-fighting qualities to mindfulness. Famous researchers such as Benjamin Shapero, GaelleDesbordes, Sara Lazar and Herbert Benson have dedicated substantial amount of time towards its study. It is however more than just a bubblegum sport, but something with long-term effects of positivity.

Source:https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/less-stress-clearer-thoughts-with-mindfulness-meditation/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hu-twitter-general

Uploaded Date:10 August 2018

Mindfulness meditation has taken the world by storm. Numerous tech companies in the US have a full-fledged corporate training programme based around mindfulness meditation. It is even being used to sell products in the market. It is rooted in more than two millennia of Buddhist practice with proven benefits ranging from improved sleep and job satisfaction to reduced anxiety or depression. It also helps with better decision-making. Yet, it does have a downside. Motivation is generally seen as an outcome of the lack of satisfaction with the current state. It forces one to look towards the future. Mind-wandering is the opposite of mindfulness. In a study designed to see the outcomes of both, it was understood that those who went through the mindfulness programme, lacked the motivation to perform their daily tasks. Being too much at peace can reduce the urgency at work, so companies must be clear about the intent when opting for such programmes.

Source:https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/mindfulness-meditation-reduces-motivation-9786

Uploaded Date:09 August 2018

Due to enormous technological changes leading to workplace disruptions, a new educational model is needed. And nowhere is this more starkly felt than in Asia, where gross enrollment ratios to school and higher education has shot up. People are now living for much longer and working for many more years than previously. Particularly true for the technical degrees is that a substantial portion of the subject content will get irrelevant by the time they graduate, such is the pace of change. “Learning to learn” must be a key ingredient honed as continuous education will now be needed. Corporate training programmes will now need to geared towards reskilling as a lot of people will need constant timely upgradation. The total private and public expenditure on education has now crossed well over a trillion in the region.

Source:http://www.southeast-asia.atkearney.com/about-us/social-impact/related-publications-detail/-/asset_publisher/EVxmHENiBa8V/content/learning-to-learn-adapting-to-continuous-workforce-disruption

Uploaded Date:18 July 2018